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dark
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Absolutely terrifying and very dense. Might be easier to grasp on the page.
Finished this as an audiobook after reading the first chapter for class. Very informative and valuable as an eye-opener on the scope and scale of surveillance capitalism, how it got started, and where it intends to go next. I echo other reviewers when I say that Zuboff can get a little too flowery in some of her passages, but I appreciate her style of metaphorization and of building her argument using a progressive string of invented terms like "the will to will" and "Big Other," it helped me to follow the path of her argumentation better. It's unfortunate that her educational and ideological pedigree prevent her from taking the obvious (to me) step of proclaiming that surveillance capitalism is just the next evolution of capitalism as it always is: extractive, rapacious, unconcerned with human lives, always seeking out the next frontier to expand into because it must expand into those frontiers in order to continue existing.
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Thoroughly depressing and infuriating, in the best way?
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I wanted to like this book. I really did. It was recommended to me by a fascinating, Harvard-educated scholar over dinner in India. The way he talked about the book made it sound both gripping and insightful. And I can see why, to somebody already steeped in the academic writing style of the humanities, it would be. But for the average reader, I think the points are overly convoluted, the sentences too rambling and stuffed with unnecessary expositions and references, and the subject matter a bit trite. Maybe I was not the target demographic, maybe I am just too lazy in my reading to want to trudge through run-on sentence after run-on sentence, but overall I just wasn't sold on the book. Putting it down for the last time was a relief and it lifted a weight off my back, allowing me to dive into other books that I have devoured at my regular pace.
Shoshanna Zuboff makes me want to go learn things good. You could use this book to knock someone out so it definitely left me feeling a bit out of my depth for vast portions. However, the author writes clearly and eloquently about deeply complex topics and I think I understood some of it even so that's a good sign. I would say I personally prefer listening to the author talk about her thoughts and theories in an interview setting (there's a good one on YouTube for Channel 4 news UK, even though the interviewer does his classic thing of constantly interrupting his guest's thoughts, but she does a good job of holding her boundaries like 'I'll finish my point and cycle back to that if I may' with a sweet smile and I would love to be half as cool someday. I came across this book after watching The Social Dilemma and again her contributions on that documentary were excellent. Haven't yet figured out a fair system to rate nonfiction so leaving the rating blank.
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
A must read. There are plenty of books out that discuss the problems with our current data management, social media, data security, and so on. But this book goes further, to explain the market forces pushing big firms to take those steps, and to illuminate the psychology behind Behavioral Economics that underpins their worldview. This book gives a complete picture. It could have benefited from pulling some sections a little tighter to keep the focus on the problem at hand, but I can't really fault it for being thorough.
This is a terrifying book. In essence, this book is about a new Big Brother, one that doesn't have the face of Uncle Sam and infinitely more menacing than anything our government can put together.
This book is about surveillance capitalism and its strangulation of humankind as we know it. We know surveillance capitalism by names like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. All are companies that have mastered the art of surveillance capitalism, essentially ingesting information we willingly and unwillingly provide, package all of our essence into "products" and sell them in the marketplace. We become the raw material and in the process lose our humanity. The book goes into terrifying details at how this is happening, and cites numerous examples.
I believe this book is a must read for anybody who have an account with Facebook, Google, Apple, or Amazon, or any of the big data-driven companies. It will truly open your eyes and make you have second thought the next time a site prompts you to link your Google or Facebook account. And I believe this book is instrumental for those that want to find ways to improve their digital self-defense and keep safe the few sanctuaries we have left in this digital age.
This book is about surveillance capitalism and its strangulation of humankind as we know it. We know surveillance capitalism by names like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, etc. All are companies that have mastered the art of surveillance capitalism, essentially ingesting information we willingly and unwillingly provide, package all of our essence into "products" and sell them in the marketplace. We become the raw material and in the process lose our humanity. The book goes into terrifying details at how this is happening, and cites numerous examples.
I believe this book is a must read for anybody who have an account with Facebook, Google, Apple, or Amazon, or any of the big data-driven companies. It will truly open your eyes and make you have second thought the next time a site prompts you to link your Google or Facebook account. And I believe this book is instrumental for those that want to find ways to improve their digital self-defense and keep safe the few sanctuaries we have left in this digital age.
I think there are parts that over egg the thesis and sometimes she takes the technology too much on its own terms but on the whole a convincing and interesting thesis.